A Progressive Duck's take on Politics, Media, History, Rock and Roll and whatever else I feel like quacking about

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Eyes on the Prize

Well it's great to see the Democrats busily attacking each other, hopefully we all can limit it to the Presidential Candidates please. Not the grassroots and progressives and everyday real Americans.

Eyes on the prize people, eyes on the prize. Your guy or girl or other may be all well and good, but just because they’re superior to mine, does not make mine Satan’s hand holder, mmmkay?

Yes, the DLC is pretty useless in this particular fight, because they seek compromise and commity and some form of status quo at a time when we need unity within the party to pull this country away from the disastrous GOP pole. And yes, Lieberman is a two bit empty suit and no longer a Democrat. And yes Barbara Boxer will continue to hear about her poor choice in backing him, but, back to the point, I’ll take a DLC’er over a Republican any day of the week.

The Dems won some power, but we don’t have any great power, except the power to check Cheney/Bush’s next moves. And we have an opportunity to make our case, to sway the public debate, to DEMONSTRATE to the public what we stand for, even if we can’t accomplish so much on the national stage.

For one, we can accomplish things on a smaller stage, supporting the policies of the national Democrats through demonstrable actions. I’ll give you an example. I belong to a Democratic Club in my community, a club on deaths door two years ago, dispirited, ineffectual, barely active and involved. But we got a new Club President, and he started to make a difference, started to pay attention to what was happening in the heart of Duncan Hunter territory, got others in the community involved.

He found the City Council was using taxpayer money to broadcast, on Public Access teevee, right wing fundamentalist propaganda films, and got them to stop. And now he's organized Citizen Oversight Panels to watch what the public agencies and elected officials are actually doing with our time and money, and discomfitting Republicans in Duncan Hunters home district in the process.

Here's an excerpt from a letter the Club President, Raymond Lutz, sent to the San Diego Union Tribune. As time passes these ideas will cause actions and reactions from the entrenched powers, as a vivid demonstration of what happens when Democrats take action. Attack the Republicans at all levels, make them react to us, force the complacent and co-opted media to pay attention and get the message out to a wider audience. It can be done, but not by attacking Democrats.

East County citizens have watched in disbelief as these forces took over the high school district, college district, ECPAC Theater, and certainly, the El Cajon City Council and the Redevelopment Agency. Now, some citizens have had enough, and have formed Citizens’ Oversight Panels (“COPs”) to provide oversight of councils, boards, and planning groups. Already, the group has a web site at CitizensOversight.org, and they are having an effect, and are having fun doing it too.

At the last February 13th City Council Meeting, five “COPs” panelists appeared with golden badges to push for improved access to public documents, suggesting that the City Council agenda should be posted in its entirety on the City web site, that the city should avoid placing large agenda items on the consent calendar, and that the City rushed give free days at the East County Performing Arts Center to insiders without offering those free days to other organizations.

The republicans on the El Cajon City Council do not know what to do about this, and it's only going to get worse for them, and if it totally gets out of their control, what do you think it's going to do to Duncan Hunter? How many local scandals are going to have his name crop up? More than a couple, I'll bet.

See, that's how it works, not by undermining any and all Democrats because you don't like their stands on issues, or their advisors, or their groups, or their backers, or their skin color, or whatever, as opposed to your preferences. So let's go get us some Republicans and take away their lunch money and make them cry!!!!